HomeMy WebLinkAboutSWAC Final Minutes 1.23.2014JEFFERSON COUNTY
SOLID WASTE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES – Thursday, January 23, 2014
Jefferson County Public Works Building, Conference Room
1. OPENING BUSINESS:
Meeting called to order by John Merchant at 3:00 PM
Members Present:
John Merchant – City of Port Townsend
Paul Roglund – District #2
Val Johnstone – District #1
Kent Kovalenko – DM Disposal; Murrey’s Disposal
Matt Hall – Skookum
Jenifer Taylor – Citizen-At-Large
Lisa Crosby – District #1
Terry Khile – Port of Port Townsend
Members Absent:
John Austin – County Commissioner
Staff:
Richard Talbot – Public Works Solid Waste Manager
Dennis Bates – Solid Waste Transfer Station Supervisor
Tina Anderson – Public Works Administrative Staff
Guests:
Aaron Lawhead, Republic Services, Roosevelt Landfill Disposal Site
Donna Logan, Citizen
There is a quorum.
Approval of Minutes:
Paul Roglund moved and Jenifer Taylor seconded to accept as presented.
Motion carried.
Correspondence:
Richard: Email from Carolyn Markette that program is stagnating and need to recycle more
plastics.
Received an email from Al about the issue of a bottle bill. Brief discussion about bottle bill
issues.
Recent article in the Port Ludlow Voice about Solid Waste Services. This resulted in 1 possible
District #1 candidate.
Guest Speaker:
Aaron Lawhead:
Aaron gave a power point presentation of the Roosevelt Landfill. This included an aerial
overview of the site, where it is located, where other facilities are located and how solid waste is
delivered to the site. Site opened in 1991. Approximately 97% is transported by train and the
remaining by truck. Republic has the largest recycling facility located in the SODO district of
South Seattle called the MERF. It covers over 12 acres of land and processes approximately 17
tons of recyclables a month.
There are 11 origin points for trains. Why trains: trains are more efficient and cleaner
environmentally. They have a very long term locked in agreement with the BNSF Railroad at a
very reasonable rate. This allows for the costs to remain low and predictable. Two trains per
day come from the Seattle area with 150 containers. Each trip from Seattle to Roosevelt – one
way – takes about 14 hours. Four to six hours later all the containers are emptied and on the
return trip.
Not only is the trash “pushed, packed and covered” as it decomposes it produces gases. Over
90% of the gases produced are captured. The gases are piped into a facility partnered with the
Klickitat PUD that produces about 23 mega watts of power.
There are 170 family wage jobs at Roosevelt. Also jobs locally with 3rd party customers. This is
a huge partnership creating something sustainable, resourceful and making something
meaningful with your waste.
Tours are available at the site.
Answers to Questions:
The containers are used for solid waste materials only.
Coal trains will not impact the Roosevelt trains. They transport in a different direction.
Back up plan for trains is to use trucks. Trucking companies are available.
There is an emergency landfill site in King County.
Landfill sites are so regulated that many have closed rather than do costly upgrades.
Recycling and landfill work together by being responsible for the commodity.
100% of Leachate is recycled thru the system and converted to energy.
Effort is made to sell recyclables locally first.
There is no landfill recovery (mining) taking place at this time.
There is no burning at the Roosevelt site.
The reduced source for methane food stock has not been seen to effect the current methane
production. Methane production takes about 4 years thus reduction may be seen in the future.
Burying is 18” minimum, depth of facility is about 330 feet.
The facility runs 6 days a week from 6 AM to 2 PM. Weather conditions do effect processing.
Last year 686 containers came from Jefferson County. This equals 2+ containers per day.
Jenifer Taylor:
She was in Anchorage and visited their recycling to see what they are doing with glass. They
crush the glass. Their Department of Transportation changed the code to accept crushed glass in
road construction. The crushed glass is also used by companies to make counters. She brought
a sample of the crushed glass. It is considered a low grade use.
Brief discussion on crushing glass locally and nationally, uses and contaminates to crushed
glass.
2. OPERATIONAL REPORTS:
Education:
See email from Pinky: Solid Waste Education and Outreach
They are in the process of hiring a new staff member to replace the part-time educator that left
last June.
Signage is not on the busses yet, she is still working on it.
Discussion on contaminates going into recyclables. Lack of signage and no one watching the
site contributes to the problem.
Most of the contamination is at the collection sites and not curbside. Although ceramics still
come from curbside.
Recycling:
Matt: Glass is going to be hauled to Portland. Still have the continuing problem of
contamination by ceramics.
Several Plastic recycling companies are closed and Matt is looking for new vendors. He has
been working with Waste Management that has agreed to take a trial load.
They are still looking at a new loader and still looking at baler options.
Discussion about recycling more plastics: Waste Management sends to a facility in the South
Tacoma/Puyallup area that takes rigid plastics.
Discussion about glass and plastics in the recycling stream.
Compost:
Still selling compost. It was steady all winter.
Solid Waste:
Tonnage has gone up. There have been a lot more transactions with less coming in per trip.
This may change with the new rates. There has been a downtrend in news print. There has
been more glass and more electronics.
Getting a new trailer jockey in April.
Richard received a possible contact for District #3.
Rates go up Saturday, February 1st. Discussion: feedback has mostly been positive. There have
been handouts, notices in the paper and at the transfer station. Dennis & Richard will be on site
Saturday for any problems.
3. OLD BUSINESS:
Solid Waste Management Plan Revision:
Richard distributed copies of the Process Outline. State recommendation is to review/revise the
plan every 5 years.
Staff would like to work with a sub-committee from SWAC. The subcommittee would meet for
about an hour several times of a month.
Interested: Kent, Paul, Lisa in a month or two.
Brief discussion on what the plan covers and what can be added to help future agreements and
expansions.
4. OLD BUSINESS:
CPG Offset Cycle Grants:
Currently have a grant for the 2013 -2014 bi-annum that is used to fund recycling. There is
currently about a million dollars in unrequested money. Ecology select offset cycle projects on
a competitive basis instead of allocating by county figures. The criteria include completeness of
the application, readiness to proceed and inclusion in the Solid Waste Management Plan. The
applications are due by March 14. Staff created a list of potential projects and would like the
committee’s input on a priority project. With a grant there needs to be a way to measure the
effectiveness of the project. Suggestions: combined projects, school sustainability, hiring site
monitors, multi-county project.
5. FROM THE FLOOR:
Val showed the Recycling insert from the Sequim Gazette and the Leader. There was a lot of
information about Clallam County, Sequim and Port Angeles. There was a very small box with
the Jefferson County web site and phone number only. Why isn’t there more information about
Jefferson County?
Need to elect a Chair and Vice-Chair.
Val nominated John Merchant for Chair and John nominated Kent Kovalenko for Vice Chair,
Paul seconded the motions. No discussion. Motion carried with all in favor.
ADJOURNMENT: 4:46 PM